Speaker Series

Each year, the CSCC invites leading experts to Penn to present their research and share their knowledge about contemporary China. Typically scheduled for Wednesday afternoons 4:30-6 pm, speakers will deliver their remarks and then entertain questions from the audience. Attendance is open to the entire Penn community. Announcements about upcoming talks will be posted on the CSCC website and disseminated via the Center’s listserv. To be added to the listserv, please visit our signup page https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/cscc-announce.

Upcoming Speaker Series



2024

Political Centralization under Xi Jinping: Strategic Adaptation by Local Cadres

Jessica Teets, Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Xi Jinping has been centralizing policymaking and supervision of local cadres beginning in 2016. Using survey data of 1,500 cadres in 28 provinces, we analyze the impact of these institutional changes on local cadres…



2024

TBD

Chen Yifeng, Associate Professor, Peking University Law School
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2024

High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy

Angela Zhang, Associate Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Co-sponsored by Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, Penn Carey Law.

Professor Zhang discusses her new book…



2024

Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarian Rule in China

Jeremy Wallace, Professor of Government, Cornell University
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St



2024

Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State

Yingyao Wang, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
- CSCC Conference Room, PCPSE Room 418, 133 S. 36th St

Professor Wang will discuss her forthcoming book titled Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State, by Columbia University Press. Her book…

Past Speaker Series



2014

Campaign Rhetoric and the Surprising Stability of Leadership Transitions in the Asia-Pacific

Jessica Weiss, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University
Annenberg School of Communication, ANNS 111

Conventional wisdom holds that leadership transitions are periods of heightened uncertainty as foreign actors seek to probe the resolve of new and untested leaders. However, a careful examination of…



2014

Culture and Trade

Wang Heng, Professor of Law, School of International Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China; Adjunct Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Visiting Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales.
Fisher-Bennett 345, CSCC conference room



2014

China and the World Trade Regime: A Multilateral and Regional Perspective

Wang Heng, Professor of Law, School of International Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China; Adjunct Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Visiting Professorial Fellow, University of New South Wales.
Silverman 240A, Penn Law School



2014

Asian Designs: Risen Powers and the Struggle for International Governance

Saadia M. Pekkanen, Job and Gertrud Tamaki Associate Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

* Open to all, lunch provided.



2014

Promoting Good Governance and the Rule of Law in China: How does a Chinese scholar build global teams to make a difference?

Mei Gechlik, Founder and Director of Stanford Law School’s China Guiding Cases Project; Founder and President of Good Governance International
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett Hall 345

Dr. Mei Gechlik is Founder and Director of Stanford Law School’s China Guiding Cases Project (“CGCP”) as well as Founder and President of Good Governance International (“GGI”).  Approximately three years ago, Dr…



2014

Repression Backfires:

Tactical Radicalization and Protest Spectacle in Rural China
Kevin O'Brien, Alann P. Bedford Professor of Asian Studies and Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

In spring 2005, villagers in Dongyang County, Zhejiang were unhappy.  For four years, they had been complaining about pollution emitted by 13 factories located in the…



2014

Making Sense of a Fast-Changing China

Jeff Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History (and Professor of Law, by courtesy), University of California at Irvine Editor, Journal of Asian Studies
Foreign Policy Research Institute, 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610

Professor Wassersrtom will address some of the key claims he makes in his book China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2010, with an updated edition last summer…



2014

Is No Place Safe from the Long-arm of Chinese Law?

China’s Attempt to Pierce Corporate Veils and Capture Revenue Abroad
Shen Wei, Professor of Law, Shanghai Jiaotong University Law School
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett Hall 345

The talk examines how Chinese tax authorities apply the corporate law doctrine of veil-piercing in an extraterritorial manner in the context of cross-border transactions. The analysis considers, from both…



2014

From Domestic to International: The Evolution of Chinese NGO

Jennifer Hsu, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta, Canada.
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

Interest in China’s role as an international development actor has surged due to China’s growing presence across the developing world. While much of the media and scholarly…



2014

China in Multilateral Governance: Invest, Hold-up, or Accept?

Margaret Pearson, Professor of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
CSCC Conference Room, Fisher-Bennett 345

Margaret M. Pearson is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is a specialist in Chinese domestic political economy and Chinese foreign economic policy.  She…